It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Experience the true magic of the season with Philadelphia’s most treasured holiday musical tradition. Join internationally celebrated conductor David Charles Abell, back by popular demand for the third year, as he leads you through an all-new program of Christmas classics. This spectacular lineup of exciting musical arrangements features guest vocalist Lisa Vroman, renowned for her role as Christine in Broadway’s Phantom, over 300 musicians, remarkable choirs, and the ever-popular audience sing-along — as well as some surprises your whole family will enjoy!

Helpful Information

This program, including intermission, is approximately two and a half hours in length. Artists and program are subject to change without notice.

Discounted parking passes are available from select garages. For more information, please call 215.893.1999 or add a parking pass during checkout when purchasing your tickets.

Photography

We hope all of our guests will have a great time and make many memories at our concerts and events. Post your photos or videos on social media and include #phillypops for a chance to win a pair of tickets to any upcoming concert in the current or following season! Please refrain from flash photography in the concert hall.

Enjoy the show!

Guest Artists

David Charles Abell, Principal Guest Conductor

David made his Philly POPS debut in 2013 with the Christmas Spectacular series and was delighted to be asked back to conduct it again in 2014 and 2015. Last season, he returned for Blockbuster Broadway, and was named Principal Guest Conductor of the Philly POPS shortly thereafter.

David grew up in Philadelphia. He attended Germantown Friends School from kindergarten through sixth grade and sang in the choir of Grace Church in Mt. Airy. He later attended Yale University and the Juilliard School, and studied at the Conservatoire américain in France with legendary pedagogue Nadia Boulanger.

At age 12, he met Leonard Bernstein while singing in the world premiere of Mass at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Ten years later, he was asked to assist his teacher, John Mauceri, for the Tenth Anniversary production of Mass. This led to a close association with Bernstein, both as a conducting student and as an editor of Bernstein’s music during the last decade of the composer’s life.

David’s face is widely known to American TV audiences from his conducting of the two Les Misérables Anniversary Concerts (10th and 25th), both of which have become PBS fund-raising perennials. He regularly appears on radio and television in the UK, where he has lived since 1996. He has conducted five times at the BBC Proms, London’s annual music festival at the Royal Albert Hall, most notably for the immensely successful Sondheim 80th birthday celebration. Following his English National Opera debut with Sweeney Todd in 2015, he returned with Carousel to rave reviews last season.

David has conducted the French premieres of four Sondheim musicals: Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park With George, Into the Woods and Follies. In concert, he has worked with several French orchestras and will be making his debut with the Orchestra national de Lyon and the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France later this year.

His passion and expertise in the pit has earned him a thriving US opera career. Last September, he made his Opera Philadelphia debut with The Magic Flute. He has conducted Kevin Puts’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Silent Night to great acclaim at three U.S. companies. Later this season, he will be conducting Verdi’s Rigoletto in Kansas City and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin at Hawaii Opera Theatre.

A desire to leave a lasting legacy prompted David to co-edit the first-ever scholarly critical edition of a classic Broadway hit: Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate. Using the model of authentic editions of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven, he and Seann Alderking unearthed the original 1948 orchestra parts for the show and meticulously created new scores and parts, now available for sale and rental. David has since conducted two productions of Kate based on the new edition.

His ever-increasing catalogue of recordings includes Something’s Gotta Give with baritone Simon Keenlyside, Forever with soprano Diana Damrau, excerpts from La bohème and Madama Butterfly with the Royal Philharmonic, Jonathan Dove’s community opera Tobias and the Angel, complete recordings of the musicals Miss Saigon and Man of La Mancha, and, exclusively for the Philly POPS, the 2015 Christmas Spectacular CD.

Lisa Vroman, vocalist

From Broadway to classics, on stage and in concert, Lisa Vroman has established herself as one of America's most versatile voices. She starred on Broadway, Los Angeles and San Francisco as Christine Daaé in The Phantom of the Opera and garnered theater critics’ awards for her portrayal. Her Broadway debut was in Aspects of Love and she was the first to play both Fantine and Cosette in Les Misérables.

Off Broadway and regionally, she has starred as Marian Paroo in The Music Man, Lili Vanessi in Kiss Me Kate, Birdie in Regina, Josephine in HMS Pinafore, Anna 1 in The Seven Deadly Sins, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus, and Rosabella in The Most Happy Fella. She’s appeared on PBS as Johanna in Sweeney Todd and Hey! Mr. Producer. She has also played Laurey in Oklahoma at the BBC PROMS festival), Anna Leonowens in The King and I, Mary Turner in Of Thee I Sing, and sang and danced opposite Dick Van Dyke as Mary Poppins at the Hollywood Bowl.

Lisa is a frequent guest with symphonies including San Francisco, Nashville, Philadelphia, Dallas, Utah, St. Louis, Houston, Pacific, Atlanta, Hong Kong, Cleveland, National, Florida, Cleveland, BBC Concert Orchestra, Boston Pops, Philly POPS, New York Pops as well as with the New York Festival of Song and Organist David Higgs.

She is a graduate of the Crane School of Music, State University at Potsdam (BM, Hon. Dr. of Music, Minerva Award), Carnegie-Mellon University (MFA), and is a George London Competition winner.

Recent performances have included a multi-city tour of China, An Evening of Rodgers & Hammerstein with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, a concert series with L’Opera de Rennes in France, and playing the role of Maria Callas in Terence McNally’s award winning play, Master Class.

Please visit www.lisavroman.com.

Peter Richard Conte, Organist

Peter Richard Conte is highly regarded as a skillful performer and arranger of organ transcriptions. He has been featured several times on National Public Radio and on ABC television’s Good Morning America and World News Tonight. His monthly radio show, The Wanamaker Organ Hour, airs on the first Sunday of each month and can be accessed online via WRTI.org. He performs extensively throughout the United States and Canada under the management of Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists, and was a featured artist at the American Guild of Organists’ National Convention in 2002, and at the International Organ Festival in Aosta, Italy, in September 2004. In 2013, the Philadelphia Music Alliance honored him with a bronze plaque on the Avenue of the Arts’ Walk of Fame. He has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, The Philly POPS, and with Delaware and Allentown Symphonies.

Related News

It was a very Merry Christmas in July on July 21 when The Philly POPS invited families of active military and first responders to celebrate the second annual Christmas in July press conference at the Kimmel Center.